Fergie’s blame game ploy fails

THE name Mike Dean, quite rightly in some cases, has been trotted out by any number of Premier League managers in recent seasons as an excuse to mask their own team’s inadequacies.

Most of the time the ploy has worked. Not at Old Trafford on Saturday.

For Alex Ferguson to hide behind the referee’s display following Manchester United’s lacklustre performance against their main title rivals was as desperate as the defending that led to Joe Cole opening the scoring in front of the Stretford End.